Journalist Documents Ebola Outbreak in Eastern Congo Conflict Zone

Attacks continue to be reported. We saw hospital beds left charred, the patients having fled. Other people with confirmed or suspected Ebola infections have been abducted, disappearing into a world of poor mobile phone signal and bone-shaking unpaved roads.

Local people are coordinating the community response. At least four health zones in Ituri, encompassing thousands of people, remain inaccessible because they are under rebel control. Unable to enter, response teams are relying in part on rebel leaders to pass on Ebola prevention messages and encourage participation in measures meant to slow the spread of the virus.

Misinformation and fear are the biggest challenges. Many residents do not trust the Ebola response. Some believe the disease is not real. In a region long traumatized by attacks and exploitation of rich natural resources, people are wary of outsiders.

A lack of understanding of Ebola, whose symptoms like fever can be mistaken for others like malaria, means the strict prevention measures can be jarring. There has been anger especially around burials, with people told not to do what comes naturally: bathe and prepare a loved one for the grave.

The distrust is one reason health officials don't know the outbreak's true size. Authorities still haven't identified the first person who became ill. Some residents avoid health centers. At times, community health workers who survived an Ebola infection find it difficult to persuade people to take the disease seriously.

One is a nurse who contracted Ebola earlier this year. He told me that many people ask why he survived and others didn't. "Some say that health workers have been paid off, which is why so many people are dying. Others claim that medical staff are actually killing people," the nurse said.

Journalists are not spared. At times, people accused us of being part of a conspiracy to invent the disease. Once, an angry crowd gathered outside a health center where we planned to report. Its director told us to come back another day.

People are learning to adjust to the outbreak even as it grows. At bars, face masks, temperature checks and socially distanced dancing are now part of a night out. Weddings have continued, with veils replacing face masks. At churches, attendants in nurse-like white gowns marked with red crosses hand out Communion wafers.

And during a World Cup match between Congo and Portugal, hundreds of fans embraced and cheered on the team at bars and roadside viewing areas, overjoyed at Congo's first World Cup showing in over half a century.